Italian Football Federation

I get that money talks for Italian clubs and what Chelsea offered was too much to say no.

But surely the clubs have an obligation and a responsibility to protect young talents as much as any managers, coaches or the FIGC.

We cannot have the revolution we want in Italian football if this keeps happening.

Sorry, sad state for the Italian game.

My question this week is what do you think about the, about UEFA's growing confrontation with FIFA, and what should UEFA do next to protect the interest and integrity of European football? New tournaments? Also, what you think of recent Italian Serie A le- legends coming out and backing Infantino, Totti, Vieri, Javier Zanetti?" Well, when, when, when ...

I, I've not seen Totti, Vieri or Javier Zanetti back Infantino, but I do know that he has a good relationship with lots of people in Italian football, even though the Italian FA has come out against him, uh, and want him removed.

Um, so I'm not surprised about that.

Uh, as for, uh, the growing confrontation, of course there's a growing confrontation.

Um, and Manchester United Sharp.

I mean, th- those are like iconic ones, aren't they? Um, all those are nice.

Well, when it, when it comes to this kind of thing, and I, I remember discussing with someone who worked at the Italian FA in the press about 20 years ago and he said, "We remember the shirts when we were younger." So, like, there are people now who are, are watching Liverpool or Chelsea or Milan or, or Inter, and when they're our age, like Nima and I, we're both in our mid-30s-

[laughs]

You saw the impact he had with Chelsea and with Argentina.

moving to the Italy national team Paolo Maldini and Leonardo were brought in by the new FIGC president Malagò who replaced Gravina to build a long term project for the Azzurri they went after Guardiola, Maldini and Leonardo and he declined then they went after Pirlo instead but all of Italian football declined so Leonardo and Maldini were sacked or resigned depending on who you ask this has obviously caused a lot of controversy and discussion what do you make of all of this?

Well, Italian football has been suffering for years now.

I think at some point they forgot to focus on developing young players.

Whether it's true or not, we will see.

But, you know, supposedly Mancini or the FIGC has convinced Tresoldi to play for Italy.

Romano as well, Bologna, to play for Italy.

Yeah.

There was a funny interview today.

The, the president of Serie A, Ezio Simonelli, um, he was asked about this kind of, uh, not urban myth, but, uh, there's been a lot of gossiping about the clubs in the league who are conjoined with, with the Italian Football Federation.

It's not like, for example, in England where, you know, the Premier League broke away, the original breakaway league, uh, in 1992.

Um, so there are people from Serie A who are elected to be on the Italian Football Federation board every year, and there was this story going around that, um, the clubs wanted Antonio Conte to be the Italy coach.

And Simonelli today said, "Yeah, [laughs] that's right.

Um, but you know, Mancini has our full support" [laughs] Which is, which is kind of like, oh, I mean, why do you even have to say that? I mean, f- fair play-

... um, which Conte would be as well, exactly.

So the point of difference here is that when Conte resigned, um, it wasn't shortly after kind of signing a new deal and that sort of thing.

the remaining 50% for 25 million euros.

However, Porto has a sell option, means that Porto can trigger Roma to buy the remaining 50%, meaning the deal was always going to be 50 million euros and this was just a financial mechanism for Roma to cope better with the Eur- UEFA Financial Fair Play and FIGC rules in, in case they wanted to buy a Serie A player like Luis Enrique and to fulfill those strict compliance criteria.

Um, and also if Porto activate that clause, um, then they lose the rese- they, they ru- they, they, they, they wouldn't, they don't get 50% on a future sale on a, if Roma were to sell him.

So this was brilliant by Porto because, um, they guaranteed 50 million for him, um, minimum 50 million, and they used Ca- yeah, uh, and, and, and, and it also allowed Roma to, to follow Serie A and Financial Fair Play lu- roles, um, uh, rules so that they could continue investing.